Pennsylvania Republicans are clashing over policies that would give voters more ways to submit their ballots.
Republican groups in the pivotal battleground state announced a multimillion-dollar vote-by-mail initiative at the same time state party leaders are trying to prohibit a key way of submitting those ballots.
The Republican State Leadership Committee PAC, the Sentinel Action Fund and the Keystone Renewal PAC launched an eight-figure campaign in Pennsylvania aimed at challenging “Democrats’ vote-by-mail advantage,” they said in a statement. The groups are planning outreach efforts to inform disengaged voters and swing voters about their options and encourage them to request a mail-in ballot.
Jessica Anderson, president of Sentinel Action Fund, a conservative super PAC, said embracing the alternative way of voting is “key for a Republican victory in 2024.”
But Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are working against those efforts.
A state Senate committee approved on a 7-4 party-line vote this week a measure that would ban the use of drop boxes and drop-off sites, which provide a way for voters to submit early ballots. They cited unsubstantiated claims that the structures are unsecure and promote election fraud. Anderson said that if the law is changed, the Republican groups will “adapt” their mission.
Republican officials in Pennsylvania also filed a lawsuit challenging a local law to allow drop boxes in Pittsburgh and its surrounding suburbs during the state’s presidential primary in April.
The Republican plaintiffs in the case argued that the law was enacted without the consent of the county’s board of elections and violated state rules. A majority of the three-member board must now vote to approve the satellite ballot sites.
Similar challenges have been filed by Republican officials across the state, including an unsuccessful attempt to amend the rules for drop boxes in the region around Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the fall.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a group that supports Democrats in state races, criticized the Republican groups and accused them in a statement of hypocrisy around mail-in voting.
